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Building the Leadership Layer that Drives Execution and Enterprise Value with Chris Lacy of Priority Search Management 2-3-26
00:20:40
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- [00:00]
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- [00:45]
Scott Becker
This is Scott Becker with a special episode of the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. We try actually to bring you a market insight or business insight episode plus an interview an episode with a brilliant business leader. Today we're thrilled to be joined by the founder and chief executive officer of Priority Search Management, Chris Lacey. We're going to talk to Chris a lot about his advice on hiring, what goes right, what goes wrong, how it can be improved, and the part of the market that Chris really focuses on. Chris, can you take a moment and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Priority Search management?
- [01:25]
Chris Lacey
Sure. I've never been called brilliant before, so I love the introduction. Priority Search Management really started about eight years ago after serving in the executive search world. And what I did was I opened up a firm that I thought at first would be a good service to other executive search firms, helping to take on mission critical projects for them. But over time, working in executive search as long as I did, what I found was there were roles below the, the executives that those firms weren't taking. They just didn't meet their, their fee standards or fee minimums. But somebody had to fill those and I had a real passion for it. So over time I evolved from being a resource for executive search firms to having my own firm where we were focused on what we call the missing middle, which is that layer below the executives.
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Scott Becker
Fantastic. And talk about how that got started and how you started to really focus on that middle level and give us an example of some of those positions when people could, so people could put their hands around what you mean by those levels.
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Chris Lacey
Sure. Give you an example. So working with one of my search partners, so other search firms, they had, they did quite a bit of work and still do in private equity. So they would be placing Executives, C level executives for the private equity firms inside of their portfolio companies had gotten a referral, they had placed a cfo, had gotten a referral to do a controller search, just didn't meet their fee standards. But they liked the work that we did and how we went about it. And so we took that on and over time we kept getting more of those referrals or those, I like to call them table scraps. I probably ought to come up with a better name for that, but those table scraps. And we really enjoyed, enjoyed working at that level. So once those executives get placed, sometimes they have a team in place that is already performing and other times they may not. And so that's where we have come in, is working with generally either high growth or private equity backed companies below that, that C level, below those executive leadership teams and helping them place those missing middle or critical contributor roles that are driving the, the strategy and they're executing.
- [03:50]
Scott Becker
It's so important. And those are often just to put a number on it, 70 to $250,000 roles, they could be all over the place. That's a really rough number. That's my number, not yours. So.
- [04:01]
Chris Lacey
But, but yeah, and you had asked for some examples. So those could be operations leaders, they could be in healthcare, it could be compliance, it could be clinical roles, behavioralist, even placing recruiters for organizations in certain regions that might be doing more of the hourly recruiting. So that high volume. So we are all across the board. I would say our specialty is really the missing middle. We're agnostic as it relates to the actual functions.
- [04:35]
Scott Becker
Fantastic. And when you look at companies and you work with a lot of different companies, see a lot of different things, what do companies get wrong in hiring and how they approach sort of senior and middle level roles, what do they get wrong?
- [04:51]
Chris Lacey
Sometimes I think that what you're getting my opinion, what I've seen over 20 plus years of doing this is they treat recruiting like an event instead of a process. And the, the analogy that I'll give, I get your emails every morning on the stories you're following and every now and then you throw in a comment about your golf game. Well, stepping up to, to drive a golf ball is not an event. That is a process that you've been working, I've been working on. Right. We've been working on at the driving range to, to really get that swing down. Whether you know, how you address the ball, how you stand, your backswing, the follow through. Well the same in recruiting. It's not, hey, we need this role Go out and find somebody and let's play some. There's actual interviewing and recruiting is the middle part of the process. There's a lot that happens on that front end to build into that process to make sure that you're targeting the right individuals and then when you're interviewing them, that you're finding the right individuals. And then after you place them, then what? So I, I think the issue isn't necessarily complexity, it's really just emphasis. And we see companies, they invest quite a bit of money in firms and process for executive hires, but they under invest in that missing middle where the people are actually carrying the execution. So I don't, I don't think they need to overhaul the process. I just think they need a refinement and put a little bit more thought, a little more structure and they'll see the outcomes change dramatically.
- [06:23]
Scott Becker
No, and I love that. And so important, and that middle level is so important because you have all the great leaders you want. But if they don't have a great middle level and junior level, the life of the senior level is impossible because you can't execute on things without great teams and great people. So I love that focus. When you see organizations that regularly land great talent versus those that struggle, what's the difference? And let's take compensation out of the equation and say compensation has to be good, it has to be solid, it's got to be good enough. You can't have people irritated every day. It's their compensation. But once you get past compensation, what separates organizations that could bring in and retain really good talent from those that can't.
- [07:05]
Chris Lacey
I think clarity around impact that beats cash every time. And this is, this is where I, I think the, the really, really good organizations separate from everyone else is they sell impact, not role and responsibilities. So the, what that would mean if, if we're putting it into practice is you're clearly communicating to a candidate what they get to build, what they get to own, what success will unlock next. In every role carries impact, whether it's a direct impact to revenue or it's an indirect impact being able to sell that impact. I say sell, but sell that impact. So candidates know, hey, if I'm going to make a change, this is the impact I'm going to have. It's not just the role and responsibility. And I think stronger, stronger candidates are willing to engage when they hear that. But I think, I do think that the other thing that organizations that land great talent do is they communicate up front what those challenges are. And that way there's no surprises for anyone coming in. And that's where sometimes companies miss is they move too fast through the process and candidates may accept a role without fully understanding the obstacles. And once the reality hits too late, that's where the retention suffers.
- [08:32]
Scott Becker
100%. So people knowing up front, here's you're going to have an impact, here's maybe who you're going to work with, here's the things you're going to do and here's the overall gestalt of what you're going to do and what's going to be expected of you and vice versa. To see if that fits with what you're looking for. Let me ask you a question. You know Chris, it's such a changing job market. What does search look like in this changing job market currently and how do you think about it? And are candidates scared to leave, scared to move to new jobs? What are you seeing currently?
- [09:05]
Chris Lacey
Yeah, I don't, I don't think that they're scared. I, I do think it one, it depends on function and some, some functions. Right. So it could be accounting, it could be engineering, it could be clinical. They're a little bit more analytical in terms of their change. So they may not be more as apt to change on the commercial side or the relational roles. They, they may be more apt to at least hear or listen. And it really is just roll to roll, company to company. So I can't really say if it's a candidate driven market or a client driven market right now. It really just depends on the roles. But it's part of why we're talking today, Scott, is I do think refining the process helps regardless of what market we're in.
- [09:55]
Scott Becker
No, I think that's so right. And talk about this as you see companies scale, where do things go right between leadership expectations and results or where might there be breakdowns, where do you think those will go? Right. As organizations scale with teams, I've seen examples of both. Give me some thoughts from you as to where it goes. Right. Where you can have breakdowns.
- [10:17]
Chris Lacey
I think the onboarding, I think that is the most critical piece to hiring. And again we've talked about this as a process, not an event. So being able to establish up front exactly what you're looking for, exactly what challenges need to be solved and then putting together what the ideal fit or background might be in a position, then going to market, doing the research, once you find that candidate onboarding is where that, that breakdown happens. After the hire, everyone onboards, very few refine it. And I think Scale scaling. Assume that like the clarity they've talked about in the process, it just transfers automatically. It doesn't. So somebody who, for example, if they're, if they're scaling up in their career, they've come from a $10 million organization, they're going to a 50 or $100 million organization, they may not automatically be built for that. And so those expect changes, especially in scaling companies, they change faster than the communication and who absorbs a lot of that, the missing middle. So that's where that confusion comes in. And I think that's where, that's where as companies scale, the ones that get it right have a, we'll call it a refined or a thorough onboarding process. And it's just radical clarity around decision rights, success metrics. And there's a feedback cadence. They have that set and candidates know coming in, I'm going to be getting feedback on a regular basis about where we are, are. And the whole point of that, Scott, is so that they can dig deep roots quick. Because onboarding is where strategy either takes root or it dies quietly.
- [12:03]
Scott Becker
No, thank you. And I, and I love that. And that onboarding and getting people aligned early and correctly and onboarded and comfortable and thriving is so important. And if you don't pick a lot of time on an energy on it early, it could drag on at suboptimal levels for years, quite frankly.
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Chris Lacey
Yeah.
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Scott Becker
Chris, talk for a second about leaders are building teams and speed matters because they're trying to grow quickly or they're trying to fill out a team quickly. If you're in the financial business, whatever business you're in, and you've got a CFO on a team, you need a controller, you need it now or you've got to outsource it and then you lose time in getting it right and how you want to get it. But when speed matters and a bad hire can cause challenges, how should you think about building teams?
- [12:52]
Chris Lacey
Alignment over pace. I have a client right now, they are scaling very quickly and it's high pace, low alignment. It's almost the exact opposite. I think as leaders are building teams, there is the example you just gave is they need it now. And a lot of times what they move fast on is getting somebody in, in place versus moving fast on, being radically clear around what the role is, around the scorecard of that role and what alignment looks like versus just putting people in place and that. I think the biggest example of this, since we're, we're coming up on the super bowl and then we're going to go right into the NFL combine is just using the NFL as a comparison. I this is my personal opinion and we can do a whole coffee chat on this, but I think that their scouting is broken and that that is one where they have high pace, low alignment. A lot of people that come into the league don't really make it so they, they focus on elite measurables and there's low sustainability, sometimes there's poor system fit. I think that if we slow down, so slow is smooth, smooth is fast. If we slow down on the clarity of the roll, it will allow companies, and even us, we do this too with all of our clients. We slow down on what those expectations are. So we sharpen the saw so it takes less time to chop down the tree. That's where we have our greatest success.
- [14:24]
Scott Becker
And it's fascinating because there's such a temporary feeling of success when a role is filled. But if the role is filled quickly with the wrong person, you're back at it in a month or two or six months or so versus going a little bit slower and sorting out what you really want in hiring the right person and setting the expectations correctly. I think that's a fantastic take. And we all know that feeling of oh my God, we got the role filled. We filled that spot. We were so stressed. We didn't have, we didn't have a person with that spot. Now we filled it, but we didn't necessarily fill it with the right person. Let me ask you another question. When anybody hires, I've always taken the belief in businesses that it's always an educated guess as to whether somebody's going to work out or not. And you try and reduce those odds, increase the probabilities that it's going to work out, but it's always more of an educated guess. How do you get hiring people, founders, CEOs, to not get too gun shy about the next hire when they realize there's always going to be Even in the best hiring firms will never have a hit rate better than 3/75% or so. And if they're hitting that, they're doing fantastic. Yeah, you might have a different perspective on that. But at least what I've seen in my own businesses is, you know, every hire is an educated guest and we're trying to increase probabilities. It goes well. But one of these I hate is when one of my leaders or managers, supervisors then gets gunshot because they made a bad hire. How do you, how do you work through some of those thoughts, Chris? And any thoughts there?
- [15:53]
Chris Lacey
Yeah, I I'm a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan, so that may turn off like the majority of your listeners right away in their Super bowl in 2019, Pat Mahomes through two interceptions and Andy Reid, the head coach, came up to him on the sideline and his first, the first thing he told him was keep firing. Don't get gun shy. I think we are in the business of working with people. Humans and humans change their. We change our minds. Life happens. There are, there are so many variables that we cannot control. So I'm just going to go back to process. If we adopt and refine the process, it mitigates a lot of those surprises and challenges. Not all of them. It's not perfect and it's not about perfection. It really comes down to about sustainability. So I would say get your process defined and refined and occasionally you're going to have that mulligan but that doesn't mean you stop swinging. You don't stop playing golf on you. You keep finishing and you keep working through it. So anyone who's been in business or later in life knows it's, it's not about perfection. It really is about recovery. So just continue to recover, use the process and keep working through it. That's what I would say is keep firing.
- [17:20]
Scott Becker
Oh, and I, and I love that message from Andy Reid to Pat Mahomes. I think that is so brilliant and so right on because the firepower in the offense is about him throwing the ball and mixing it with running and, and if he gets gun shy about throwing, he's in trouble. And we have managers that gun shy about hiring because they had an imperfect hire, then we're really stunted as an organization. So I just, I love that thought process. As we get into this new year. If you're advising a founder, a CEO about a people decision, what's a people decision you ought to treat is non negotiable. It's an absolute. Any thoughts there?
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American Giant Narrator
I.
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Chris Lacey
I would say stop chasing A players and build an A process. The recruiting, this is the, the, the one area that I think again we treat as an event, not a process. Every process is going to look different. But build an A process, build a system that is focused on finding the right fit and the best fit, not the best available. Which, which means think about your roles as they exist today and have a clear understanding of the impact, the challenges, the expectations and then build your system to be able to find the right fit and onboard that right fit so that they dig deep roots. I would say it's, it's not about the best available. It's about the best possible and how do we attract the best possible? It's the right process. From scorecard to onboarding, you're going to get the most out of the people that you hire if you have a process in place.
- [19:11]
Scott Becker
And, Chris, as long as I have you with us, let me ask you one more question, because you're both in the business of hiring and helping founders and leaders to hire, but you're also a founder yourself. Any lessons or a couple thoughts you want to share with the audience about founding a business, about being a leader in your own business?
- [19:31]
Chris Lacey
Yeah, I think the toughest part about being a founder or being a leader is being able to manage your own psychology. We second guess ourselves a lot. We carry the weight and the burden of growth and the impact of our decisions and managing our psychology, at least for me, managing my psychology is really, really important because I want to bring the healthiest version of myself to my team. I want to make good decisions, and I can't do that if I'm not in a good headspace. So part of what I do to manage my psychology is I really do look for people that have gone the road before me. So they, they may have a little bit more gray hair. Actually, everybody has a lot more hair than I do, but they may have a little bit more gray hair. And they've been where I've been. And I try to find those people that have robust sanity, have been where I've been, and bounce ideas off them and really get good feedback from them. So that's, that's my, my opinion is it is really, really hard when you carry the burden. So manage your psychology well so that you're showing up emotionally healthy every day, Chris.
- [20:49]
Scott Becker
I'd love that. I think that is great advice. And this, this ability to show up feeling physically, mentally healthy, emotionally healthy, can be an ongoing challenge. But I think it's so important to do that if you're going to do anything successfully. What a pleasure to visit with you. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Again, thrilled to be joined by the founder and CEO of Priority Search Management, Chris Lacey. Chris, thank you so much for joining us.
- [21:20]
Chris Lacey
Yeah, thank you for having me, Scott.
- [21:25]
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